Auction Glass

A rodbuilding friend told me about these Ebay blanks so I decided to get one to build. It is an 8' 5/6 wt clear blank. Reel seat is AmTak's window skeleton seat with the thread wrap showing through the skeleton. The grip is Carbon fiber ends, cork and birch bark with black trims. Guides are Pac bay stripper and chrome SF guides and flytip. The rod was good and straight and has a good action. I have only fished it with a 5wt line so far but the rod has a nice medium+ action. I can't wait to put a six on it and go for some bass.

Great looking rod. I always love your various grips. A few questions. Care to share the source for the blanks? With the thread wraps under the reel seat, is it wrapped around the blank or an insert, and if it is an insert did you have to reduce the diameter to account for the thread? Did you epoxy the thread under the reel seat before you put the skeleton on, or after? Finally, what epoxy are you using currently for your wraps?

I got the blank off of ebay and the seller is fiberrods. He does not have any on there right now but did have them in an array of colors. The thread under reel seat is directly on the blank and then finished before reel seat was put on. Lately I have been using prokote. I was using TM lite and regular but I thought I would give this a try. They say it is a med. build but to me it is thinner than TM lite with about the same amount of set up time. I find I am now using three coats instead of two. It does release bubbles nice and seems to level better over long wraps and decals.

I used prokote on my last few builds. I love the long pot time, but I think because it takes so long to set up I am getting more sagging/footballing. Maybe I just need to plan on 3 coats instead of 2 and go even lighter on the amount applied.

I use ProKote and dry mine at 22 rpm, it coats nice and level. For the most part I use 3 coats to make sure the trim does not poke through the finish but if I'm using all nylon with out metallic trim I can get away with 2 coats and still have it level out. Its my go to finish for thread........Great stuff